The units of language analysis

INTRODUCTION In the previous chapter, a distinction was made between structural and functional descriptions of grammar. It was suggested that a complete analysis must take a functional–structural view of language since these two components work together and are normally inseparable. Grammatical structure, including lexical structure, is what allows the functions to be expressed. So with this relationship between function and structure in mind, this chapter will take a deeper look at structure and offer some descriptions of the main grammatical units we will be working with. This chapter offers a general overview of the clause and its internal composition. It also introduces the basic terminology and notation that will be useful for our exploration into analysing English grammar. The main idea presented here is that when a speaker says something about something, they are using language to describe (very loosely) a situation, and that this situation is represented in language by a structure called the clause. For now we can think of this structure as being very similar to our understanding of sentence in written language, as was explained in Chapter 1. The entities (the ‘something’) we want to say something about are seen as participating in the description of the situation. In this chapter we will begin to explore the relationship between the functions involved in the situation and the structures that these functions typically take.